Father Piccolo's First Sermon

If you are a Christian that turns to the teachings of Jesus Christ to help give you strength and character please step aside. I have no business with you today. Go and spend some quality time with someone special. I likely have nothing but respect and admiration for you and all I can really say is simply to go in peace. Maybe later on we can meet up for a beer or a cup of Joe and enjoy each others's company. I'm buyin'.

I am not preaching today to offend those true believer in Christ that live by his teachings and look to him for support in times of trouble and share joys with him. I suppose that if you fall into this category you may just as well stop here and leave it at that.

If you are one of these fine Christians and decide to read further on, that is well and good. If you read on and find yourself getting angry please stop and reread the first two paragraphs. If you are still angry then more than likely the shoe fits, so wear it.

I get pretty fed up with people claiming to being Christians that use their religion as something to hide behind and cover their lack of character with. There are a lot more of them out there than one generally notices but if you keep your eyes open you can spot them.

Of course, there are some you can spot a mile away.

The troubles in Ireland seem to bring a lot of these types out as Christians of Catholicism and Protestantism have been murdering each other over nothing for quite some time now. Of course, this is pretty obvious.

While the troubles have not been brought to the States in the form of violence, they IRA does raise money in Irish strongholds like Boston and New York. The Gospel according to Piccolo says that anyone that gives a dime to the IRA OR the Ulster Defense League is simply donating to terrorism. No excuses. None. Do not even start in with a 'Yeah, but'. There simply is no excuse for it.

Still, this is not what I came here to post about. My beef is with false Christians that use the religion to cover their weaknesses or to promote a personal agenda.

We've all met the so-called Christian that blames all of his failures on the will of God and I don't buy it. In Christianity one is given free will and generally a failure can be traced back to someone choosing poorly. Blaming God is a cop out.

Someone I know had another false Christian tell him that at work he wanted to watch church on TV with his wife so they could feel together. He asked me how to handle it and I told him to tell the guy to "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars, render unto God the things that are God and render unto the man a day's work or you ain't gonna have any money to put in the friggin' collection plate come Sunday ashore!"

Failure in life is commonplace and happens. Accepting responsibility for failure is simply showing character. Blaming it on God is plainly and simply a case of trying to cover your mistakes at the expense of God.

There is another type of false Christian that I will mention here is the snake. This is the self-rightous person that has taken it upon himself to play the role of God and run around condemning everyone else and stabbing them in the back.

Sometimes these are pretty easy to spot. If you look at someone and think that you have never seen someone more desperately in need of a blowjob there's a pretty good chance you are dealing with one of these.

They refuse to acknowledge that other people have other ways and judge them on their beliefs. They are quick to destroy things that are other people's and seem to hide behind their religion as an excuse to promote their agenda.

Many of us have seen it in the workplace and other spots. There is always the guy that bases promotions, bonuses and the like on how often some clown shows up at the Bible study group that he just so happens to run. Competence seems to have little to do with anything in this case.

These people are quite often nosy and spend their time running around and looking for devils everywhere you turn. Of course, seek and ye shall find. And if you don't find one then create one.

These are the kind of snakes that will plant something on a person and justify it by saying that God would want it that way. I've seen it happen before and likely will see something along these lines happen again.

If you don't attend the study group or go to the same church as this snake your generally on the outside looking in. You can also rest assured that he will try and sabatoge you if he gets a chance. He will justify it by saying that it is what God wants because you are not a part of the group.

Often good men, some of which very well may be the good kind of Christian men lose out. I've seem damned good men fired over things like this.

Most of us that are of age have seen these kinds of snakes and realize that these are the people that give their faith a truly bad name.
Recently I had someone that was in this category snoop into some of my private papers and wantonly destroy some of my work. 

When I confronted him he hid behind his religion and claimed to be doing God's work. Some Christian.

Listening to him justify his actions was one of the lamest and weakest things I have ever heard in my life. Every bit of his lame  justification came out as weakness. I'd bet that deep down he's a Nazi of some sort.

I wonder what he would say if I popped him in the mouth and told  HIM that I was doing God's work. Bet he wouldn't like it very much.

I still have to make it clear here that I am not chastising those of the Christian faith that use it to strengthen their character and help them through troubled times. Good Christians are a joy to be around, as are good Jews and others. The Hindu that runs the local 7-Eleven is a joy and he told me he practices his faith regularly. So does the Catholic a few doors up the street. He's a joy, too.